


I Love You, Be Careful

by Undercover_Royalty



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-08
Updated: 2017-02-08
Packaged: 2018-09-22 19:34:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9622493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Undercover_Royalty/pseuds/Undercover_Royalty
Summary: This is the only way I can properly say goodbye.(In memory of my cat, Val, whom I loved in person for fourteen years and will love in spirit for the rest of my life)





	

**Author's Note:**

> I really and honestly didn't mean for the next thing I write to be sad! I must sound like a very depressing person. 
> 
> However, my cat did pass away today. I've had him since I was four years old, and honestly cannot remember life before him. In short, this is my attempt to commemorate all that Val was to me, and my family. 
> 
> Thank you all for reading.

I must've said it every day for at least twelve years. 

There you'd sit, glancing back at me with your baleful green eyes, just waiting for me to relent and let you out. You knew I'd do it, no matter how many times I walked past you. 

Eventually, as was custom, something (usually a plaintive meow) would bring me back to you. I'd open the door, maybe pet you a little if I hadn't seen you. By then, your focus was never on me. It was on the world outside, the world you loved. We all knew we could never keep you, no matter how much we loved you, or how much we worried. 

So instead, I would kneel down, catch you under the chin and kiss the top of your head. I'd stand back up, put my hand on the doorknob, and say the words you probably associated with freedom for a good majority of your life. 

"I love you, be careful." 

However quickly, monotonously or exasperatedly the words came, I always meant it. You were special to me, special to all of us. You were my "handsome prince", my "baby boy", my "gorgeous cat". I loved you more than I'd loved any boy I'd ever met. You were the pet I swore I'd take to Hogwarts when I turned eleven, and the pet that sat beside me on the steps when I realized, once again, that life didn't work like that. 

When my brother and I were six and four, and we let you out for the first time, we pressed our faces into the living room window and cried, because we thought you'd never come back. You sauntered out into the yard, glanced around, and then glanced back at us. I remember watching each other for a few seconds. 

And God only knows what you saw in a pair of teary, snot-faced kids, but you turned yourself around and came right back in. 

From then on, you were our Val. 

Cuddling on the couch, on my bed, winding around my legs, you were a total charmer, when you chose, and an aloof textbook cat every time else. You roamed where you want, ate what you pleased, slept wherever was convenient. You lived a life independent of ours, one entirely your own. We had endless fun trying to guess what you were up to when you were away. 

Yes, it was probably your undoing. Yes, if you'd been inside, you'd still be alive. But if you had stayed inside, you wouldn't be Val. And I'd take fourteen years over a hundred in those circumstances. 

You're going by your favorite tree, in the front yard, the one I'd see you waiting under when I got home from school. I hope you'll be happy there, or wherever it is that you are now. You are loved, and you are remembered. 

I love you, handsome prince, and be careful out there. 

Goodbye, my Val.


End file.
